CSKA took the silver of the Russian Football Championship, and Spartak took the bronze

In the last, 30th round of the Russian Football Championship, the silver and bronze medalists were determined. Having defeated Rostov (4:1), CSKA finished second, and Spartak, who lost to Wings of the Soviets (0:1), took third place. In addition, the participants of the play-offs with the teams of the first league became known. Pari Nizhny Novgorod and Fakel will face Rodina and Yenisei, respectively.

Before the final round of the championship, all three applicants had chances for medals, because they were within walking distance from each other. CSKA was ahead of Spartak by one point, and that, in turn, had a minimal advantage over Rostov. It is clear that in this situation, much in the medal showdown, if not all, depended on the face-to-face confrontation between the army team and the Rostovites in Moscow, and the match of the red-and-whites with the Wings of the Soviets in Samara was already more of a secondary character.

Moreover, in the game at the capital’s VEB Arena, many initially preferred CSKA, including because its opponent faced serious personnel problems. Rostov has been doing without Maxim Osipenko and Nikolai Komlichenko lately, and then another very important player, Danil Glebov, dropped out due to disqualification. Yes, and the absence of Andrey Langovich for the same reason weakened the yellow-blues. However, Osipenko still returned to the field. And the red-blues had all the best performers in the ranks, although the team’s head coach Vladimir Fedotov made several changes to the usual starting line-up.

CSKA opened the scoring already in the ninth minute, and Rostov’s goalkeeper Sergei Pesyakov started the goal attack. He gave an extremely risky pass to Daniil Utkin, who was immediately covered by two army men, and the guests’ midfielder made a mistake under their pressure. The ball went to Jesús Medina, and the Paraguayan, ignoring Osipenko, delivered a smashing blow. And soon Alexander Selyava played carelessly in his own penalty area, stepping on the foot of the attacking army team Fedor Chalov. VAR became interested in this episode and invited referee Pavel Kukuyan to the monitor, who found grounds for awarding a penalty. Chalov confidently converted the 11-meter throw, and CSKA took the lead 2-0.

Thus, in the 17th minute, and all the matches of the 30th round were held at the same time, the intrigue in the fight for medals, in fact, died.

Well, by the middle of the first half, Willian Rocha finally finished her off, scoring the third goal to Pesyakov after a corner. Moreover, the Rostovites completely crumbled and allowed Chalov to issue a double. When he closed the canopy of Baktier Zainutdinov with his head, there was not a single defender nearby. So the first half ended 4-0 in favor of the army team, and they could already celebrate the silver medals. After the break, the guests, thanks to the efforts of Evgeny Chernov, only slightly sweetened the bitterness of a major defeat and lost 1:4.

CSKA finished the championship with 58 points. The last time he finished in prizes was five years ago, in the 2017/18 season, when he also became vice-champion. But Fedotov took silver for the second time in a row. Recall that last year Sochi took second place under his leadership.

At the same time, thanks to CSKA and Spartak, it was possible to congratulate in advance on the bronze. For the red-and-whites, the match in Samara turned into an empty formality, since they could no longer rise above the third line and fall to the fourth. True, they did not play well anyway. The team of Guillermo Abascal at the finish of the championship generally had difficulties in meetings with opponents from the bottom of the standings. With “Khimki” and “Nizhny Novgorod” they lost four points, which would have provided them with silver ahead of schedule. In addition, not only the disqualified striker Alexander Sobolev was absent from the Muscovites, but also the ill goalkeeper Alexander Selikhov, and the central defender Georgy Jikia remained in reserve. It is curious that the latter, even on the bench, managed to run into a red card for unsportsmanlike behavior.

But if for “Spartak” the result was no longer important, then “Wings” was motivated by the desire to guarantee a residence permit in the Premier League and get out of the zone of joints with representatives of the first division. Samarans, as they often say in such cases, wanted to win more. At the beginning of the second half, they scored Benjamin Garre, who single-handedly dealt with several Spartacists and struck irresistibly. The red-and-whites could win back from the penalty spot, but the hosts’ goalkeeper Yevgeny Frolov guessed the direction of Quincy Promes’ shot and made a save. Spartak lost 0:1 and frankly blurred the ending of a generally successful season. Nevertheless, compared to tenth place at the end of the last championship, he made significant progress, gaining 54 points and winning bronze medals.

Well, the “Wings” still avoided the play-offs. With 32 points, they moved Fakel from the saving 12th place, which was defeated by Zenit in St. Petersburg – 0:1. Overtook Voronezh and Nizhny Novgorod, who defeated Khimki with a score of 2:0. With equal points with them (30 each), Nizhny Novgorod turned out to be higher, in 13th position, according to additional indicators, but both of them are now waiting for joints. Fakel’s rival will be Yenisei, which has become fourth in the first league, while Nizhny will compete with Rodina. The young metropolitan club, founded only in 2015, was fifth according to the sports principle and got the opportunity to compete for a promotion instead of Alania, which, having taken third place, did not pass the licensing in the Russian Football Union, which is necessary to play in the Premier League.

Alexander Ilyin